For the quarter ended December 31, 2012, Microsoft reported a 2.7 percent boost in revenue to $21.5 billion from $20.9 billion in the year-ago quarter. However, the Windows maker saw a 3.7 percent drop in profit to $6.38 billion (76 cents a share) from $6.62 billion (78 cents a share) one year ago.

Microsoft saw a revenue increase of 24 percent in its Windows division to $5.88 billion (or 11 percent when adjusted for early sales of Windows 8) for the second quarter, which was the first to include Windows 8.

Microsoft didn't offer sales figures for its first homemade tablet, Surface with Windows RT. The new version -- Surface with Windows 8 Pro -- is expected to hit store shelves on February 9.

“Our big, bold ambition to reimagine Windows as well as launch Surface and Windows Phone 8 has sparked growing enthusiasm with our customers and unprecedented opportunity and creativity with our partners and developers,” said Steve Ballmer, CEO at Microsoft. “With new Windows devices, including Surface Pro, and the new Office on the horizon, we’ll continue to drive excitement for the Windows ecosystem and deliver our software through devices and services people love and businesses need.”

Windows 8, which was released in late October 2012, was met with plenty of criticism for its massive redesign. However, many PC makers (such as Dell) were hoping that it'd be the saving grace for the PC market, where hardware sales had been declining over the years as mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) exploded onto the scene.

But many PC makers didn't see a huge increase in sales with Windows 8. And while Microsoft hasn't released sales figures for its Surface tablet yet, reports last month indicated that the new device took a sales hit due to a lack of distribution. Microsoft had only offered the Surface with Windows RT online and at Microsoft stores (and there are a little over 60 stores total in the U.S.).

In mid-December, Microsoft finally allowed third-party retailers to sell the Surface. Surface with Windows RT also made its way to Australia in mid-December, and will do so in other countries in the following months.

In today's financial earnings report for Q2, Microsoft also announced declines in its Entertainment and Devices division (including Xbox) of 11 percent to $3.77 billion and its Business division (including Microsoft Office) of 10 percent to $5.69 billion from a year earlier.

Microsoft's shares were down 2.1 percent in after-hours trading today to $27.63.

Nobody is willingly acquiring this piece of shit, they are forced onto it with new computers, most of which are then downgraded to a proper OS like Win7. All those licenses "sold" m$ claims are just new installs on computers yet-to-sell or not really in use anymore after purchased off retailers.

Same here. I was scared at first after reading a lot of negative reviews but after experiencing Win 8 for a couple of weeks on both my lappy and my tablet I realized that those negative reviews were written by oldfags and similar kind of idiots who still use MS-DOS or Win95 :)))

I did an upgrade on my gaming PC last week and used that as opportunity to do a clean install of Win 8 on that machine, too. So I am completely Win 8 now and very happy with it. Next step, WP8 and probably Win 8 tablet (ThinkPad Tablet 2 looks nice).

I am taking the wait and see approach. I think it is the market that will tell not opinions voiced in here. I can't predict how everyone other than myself will react to Windows 8.

I've used Win8 for a couple months and never gained a liking for it. I much prefer using Windows 7. I won't go so far as to say Win8 sucks, I only find it less suitable for the things I do with computers than its predecessor.

Others, or even the majority may not share this view. I can only speak for myself in that I prefer an OS that is tailored to the kind of device I am using it on. I'm not a big fan of the "Jack of all Trades, Master of none" approach to operating systems. I much prefer an operating that is specialized and very good at handling my needs without being bloated with things I don't need (i.e Metro). I also like my OS to look good. IMHO Win-7's Aero Glass GUI is far nicer to look at than Win-8's Metroish flat graphic desktop. Sorry Microsoft, but IMO you had a winner with Aero. I really don't like what you used to replace it.

I understand Microsoft's financial dream of getting everyone hooked on their Microsoft App store (to me this is the #1 reason why this whole Metro thing is included in Win8). There is a lot of money to be made from that market -- to the right customers. I just don't expect to see a lot of desktop users making much use of it though tablet and phone users will use it extensively.

What I don't get is this: Microsoft already has a separate tablet/phone oriented OS called Windows RT. Was it really necessary to put the RT features into Win8 just for the possibility of gaining desktop user's custom into the MS App store?

I agree with this assessment. In an earlier forum discussion I talked about the problems that I was having with Win 8 (For me it was app compatibility, bluetooth, updating issues, and just general bugginess) and I solved some of the problems. Unfortunately Win 8 users aren't as good as Linux users, if you have a problem with Linux you simply start a thread "I hate win 8 because of..." and you will have all of your problems solved, here it was mostly "deal with it" or "I didn't have that problem". I do appreciate the help of a user that mentioned that you can load Win 7 drivers (fixed my bluetooth problem).

Anyways, after playing around with it I managed to make my computer start up in no time flat and made it run smoother and faster, but I still couldn't get my Zune software or Audials to work on it. I realize that I am one of 6 people that use the Zune, but I love the thing and I prefer the software over Xbox Music. As for Audials, I bought version 8 years ago, then I just bought version 9 a couple months ago. Just after Win8 was released they fixed the issue and called it version 10 and their response is to buy the new one...F@%# them.

I decided to add a second hd to my laptop in raid 0 configuration and just for fun loaded Win 7 onto it (by that I mean I initially went to reinstall Win8 but because I created the usb install on my other laptop it wouldn't install due to their antipiracy crap, so I put on 7 first). I did this about a week ago and it has been running so smoothly and without a single issue that I don't think I'm going to upgrade it back. I will wait and see what happens with it though, but I personally prefer 7, the experience is magnitudes better. It takes longer to boot, but since I rarely start it up (maybe once a week or 2) its not really an inconvenience.

http://www.stardock.com/You can download Windows 7 desktop themes with aero glass.You can keep these background image Under metro.You can disable metro and have a start button if that's your thing.But you miss out on all the improved OS and the apps.Netflix app, Hulu, Youtube, they all work better than the website version. Windows 8 for HTPC rocks.

Disagree. Netflix Metro is half baked and nowhere near as flexible when it comes to finding or browsing for movies, I feel the same for the YouTube app. Can’t comment on the others as I didn’t use them before going back to Win 7,

I had to use the Metro Netflix app though as none of my browsers seem to work with win8 and MS Silverlight BS. (Well it worked for a week and then gave DRM errors in everyone of my 3 different browsers) Netflix couldn't figure it out either. I fixed the problem by reverting to Win 7 now all is as it should be. Working!